Gorgonops

Gorgonops is an extinct genus of gorgonopsian therapsid, of which it is the type genus. Gorgonops lived during the Late Permian (Wuchiapingian), about 260–254 million years ago in what is now South Africa.

Gorgonops

Robert Broom · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
GorgonopsinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Gorgonopsia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 13 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 264.28 Mya and 251.902 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Permian — about 16 of 16 occurrencesPermianEarly Triassic — about 0 of 16 occurrences264–264 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences264–263 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences263–263 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences263–262 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences262–262 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences262–261 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences261–261 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences261–260 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences260–260 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences260–259 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences259–259 Mya — about 1 occurrence259–259 Mya — about 1 occurrence259–258 Mya — about 1 occurrence258–258 Mya — about 1 occurrence258–257 Mya — about 1 occurrence257–257 Mya — about 1 occurrence257–256 Mya — about 1 occurrence256–256 Mya — about 1 occurrence256–255 Mya — about 1 occurrence255–255 Mya — about 1 occurrence255–255 Mya — about 1 occurrence255–254 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences254–254 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences254–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–253 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences253–252 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences252–252 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences264.8 Mya251.4 Mya

16 occurrences of Gorgonops on record, most of them in the Permian. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

16 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

4 formations

Teekloof — 32.08°S, 22.11°ETeekloof — 32.39°S, 22.55°EChiweta Beds — 10.70°S, 34.17°EAbrahamskraal — 32.42°S, 22.37°EMadumabisa Mudstone — 16.48°S, 28.08°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Gorgonops has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 9 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Gorgonops and its relatives

Permian

Where Gorgonops and its relatives were recorded in the Permian.

Found in the same rock

9 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Gorgonops, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

6 references

Each of the 16 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Gorgonops

Credit
Robert Broom
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Gorgonops eupachygnathus · NHMUK:PAL:PV R 4051

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itGorgonopsinae through timeFormations of the PermianThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1876